How To Ruin A Pretty Perfect Moment
by watram
Summary: Even in Luke's apartment, privacy is a very foreign concept. A silly little missing scene from Swan Song, in honor of Luke's fabulous Ten Minute Rule. One-shot of fluffy Lit.


A/N: I just had this silly little idea for a one-shot. A missing scene from Swan Song, around the time when Lorelai walked in on Rory and Jess. Review? Please?

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing. In fact, a part of the dialogue is from the show.

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Luke entered his apartment to find Rory and Jess sitting next to each other on the couch, their arms linked and Rory's head on Jess's shoulder. They were reading, no surprise there, each one their own book. Of course, if Luke had come up closer to them, he would have noticed that Rory was holding her book upside down. He didn't.

"Sorry," he said instead. "I just need plasters, Caesar cut his finger with the lettuce grater."

The two teenagers nodded, not gracing Luke with so much as a single glance.

"Okay, I got them!" Luke announced and once again looked at Jess and Rory. Deciding that they looked innocent enough, he left the apartment, leaving the door behind him half open.

"So you've read The Fountainhead so many times you've decided to give it a go upside down?" Jess smirked at Rory and got up to close the door.

Rory, as expected, blushed. "Next time, I'm trying to read it backwards," she answered, hitting some buttons on her cell phone. "Nine and a half minutes?"

"Make it nine forty-five," Jess replied, coming back to the couch. "He seems to be cutting us some slack lately. I mean, he still leaves the door open but at least he doesn't have objections to us sitting on the same piece of furniture."

"Thank goodness for that," Rory said, pecking him on the lips.

"Yup, otherwise we'd have to sit on the floor to do this," Jess added, moving in for another kiss. Rory smiled against his lips and pulled away slightly, so that their foreheads were touching.

"So, Caesar's fingers, that's new," she said.

Jess chuckled in response. "You know, I worry about him."

"Caesar?" Rory asked curiously.

"Luke. His head might explode one of these days from coming up with all these excuses."

"Come on, it's entertaining!"

"I guess. The pocket knife he had to pick up before seeing Nicole was pretty great. Still, it's not as entertaining as this," Jess said and gave Rory another kiss, which she happily reciprocated.

"I concur, my friend" she murmured against his mouth and moaned slightly when his teeth lightly captured her lower lip. Her hand buried in his locks while the other one circled his shoulders, bringing him closer. Jess cupped her face and then moved his hand down her arm, making her flesh burn under his touch, until his palm settled on her waist. They pulled away for air, staying in the same positions, their eyes locked.

"You know," Rory said just above a whisper. "I'm trying to think of some literary comparison for this moment but I can't seem to think of anything."

"Two options," Jess said. "Either my proximity makes you lose your wit, or this," he rested his forehead on hers, "actually belongs to us only. I personally like both scenarios."

She kept looking at him, biting her lip.

He thought that this quirk of hers was adorable. Since when did Jess Mariano labelled things 'adorable', he didn't know. Actually, he did know, but he would never admit it to anyone, even her, the only person in the world who looked right through his tough exterior.

"Softie," she said quietly, and he flashed her one of those rare genuine smiles of his that always sent her reeling.

"Don't call me that if you ever want me to do this again, Gilmore," he said cheekily and planted a kiss below her ear. His lips reclaimed hers, as his hand slipped underneath her sweater on her waist. The skin-to-skin contact caused goosebumps to appear all over Rory's body as she toyed with his hair in order to resist the urge to carry out some clothes removal herself.

"Oh! Oh!" they heard suddenly and broke away abruptly, seeing Lorelai who appeared to be equally surprised and terrified.

"Mom!" Rory exclaimed, trying to steady her ragged breathing.

"Surprise!"

"What are you doing here?" the two of them shifted on the couch, moving further away from each other.

"I came up for a book."

"A book," Jess half-asked, half-stated.

"Yeah," Lorelai confirmed, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Got a lot of books here. Anything in particular?"

"It's one of Luke's..."

"Well, if it doesn't have Encyclopaedia Brown in the title, that narrows down a lot," he said almost coolly and Rory felt a pang of admiration for him for being able to be back to his normal cool and witty in that moment, because the only thing she was capable of was playing with her sleeves, and crossing and uncrossing her arms to fight both the embarrassment and the frustration that came from the sudden lack of his warmth.

"Walking Tours – New York," Lorelai said.

"On the table," Jess grabbed the hardback and passed it to her.

"Good. Here it is. Okay. So. Thanks. Sorry about this," the elder Gilmore stuttered.

"It's okay!" the younger exclaimed falsely.

"We should probably come up with a system or something," Lorelai continued, making her daughter even more uncomfortable while Jess stared into space with a frustrated grimace.

"Probably!" Rory answered.

"Déjà vu, huh?"

"Déjà vu." Rory never wished for her mother to just disappear as much as she did now.

"Although why I'd be walking into Luke's apartment like this in the future, I don't know, so, put the system on the back burner!"

"Okay."

"Okay. Carry on... or... see ya!"

When Lorelai finally left the apartment, Rory and Jess turned to look at each other awkwardly. He blinked, which for some reason made her smile lightly.

"Why are you looking at me as if I brought her here with my very own psychic powers?" Rory inquired.

Jess shrugged and got up, brushing her arm in passing.

"Soda?" he asked, opening the refrigerator.

"Yes, please. I can't believe she just walked in like that," she said, hiding her face in her palms.

Jess put two cans of soda on the table and pulled back Rory's fingers to look her in the eyes.

"It was kind of funny how flustered you were," he smirked at her.

"What do you expect? Besides, you should have seen the look on your face."

"Well, making your mother hate me even more than she does wasn't exactly the plan."

"She's not gonna hate you because of this," she argued, sounding a bit worried. "I'll talk to her."

"And tell her what?" he raised his brow.

"That I'm eighteen and there's nothing wrong with kissing my boyfriend," she said with a pout, and feeling cuddly, circled her arms around his torso in a tight hug. Jess's arms wrapped around her waist and he buried his face in her hair.

"Kissing, huh?"

"You're gonna make me say it even though you know I hate it?"

"Yes," Jess answered, clearly amused.

"Okay then. I'm eighteen and there's nothing wrong with making out with my boyfriend."

"That's my girl."

"I mean, why would she hate you for it? She did... other stuff when she was way younger then we are," she mumbled.

"Ror-"

He didn't finish the thought because the apartment door opened vigorously and Luke burst in, a dangerous spark in his eye. Rory, on instinct, tried to pull away but Jess only tightened his grip on her, not letting her move which made her smile against his shoulder.

"You two okay over there?" Luke asked, eyeing them suspiciously while thoughtlessly opening an underwear drawer.

"We're good, Uncle Luke," Jess answered irritably. "Let me guess, Kirk needs to borrow some of your underwear?"

"Uh, yeah," Luke nodded automatically and Jess felt Rory shake from held back laughter.

Further investigation on the matter was interrupted by the alarm on Rory's phone, announcing that nine minutes and forty-five seconds have passed.

"_When they kick out your front door, how you're gonna come?" _Paul Simonon's voice asked.

"That's... my alarm," Rory explained awkwardly, pulling away from Jess.

"Your alarm? What on earth do you need an alarm for?" was Luke's fretful question.

Jess wordlessly caught Rory's hand and started pulling her out of the apartment.

"Jess!" Luke shouted after them. "Where are you going?"

"To check on Caesar's finger, we hear lettuce graters are pretty deadly," Jess shouted back. "Oh, and Luke? Don't forget about that underwear for Kirk, the mental health of the entire town is on you."

"Thanks for the mental image," Rory said to him, as they were passing through the diner, Kirk nowhere to be seen.

"How about I make it up to you?" Jess asked, kissing her temple.

"The bridge?" she smiled.

"The bridge."


End file.
